VALENCIA -- BANUS, a Research for SMEs project funded under the 7th Framework Program, started last 1st of July with the main goal of developing new multilayer structures for food packaging applications.

The objective is to guarantee the suitability of the functional barrier layers regardless of the quality of the recycled material used in the process. The great advantage of BANUS approach is to ensure highly efficient functional barriers in order to guarantee food safety when using recycled materials (plastic and paper) even coming from non-authorized recycling processes in food packaging structures.

The substitution of a percentage of virgin material by recycled material in the selected structures will be considered, in order to develop more environmentally friendly food packaging structures.

As the main requirement of food packages is always to guarantee food safety for consumers, this substitution will be achieved after evaluating the functional barriers positioned between recycled layers and foodstuffs.

BANUS, with a planned duration of 24 months and a budget of 1.1M€, is composed of nine participants from six different countries: INNVENTIA AB from Sweden, BOBINO PLASTIQUE from France, MTM PLASTICS from Germany, DELTA PRINT & PACKAGING Ltd from UK, BUMAGA BV from Netherlands and HELIOMUR SCOOP, FUNDACION CLUSTER AGROALIMENTARIO DE LA REGION DE MURCIA, ASOCIACIÓN VALENCIANA DE EMPRESARIOS DE PLASTICOS (AVEP) and AIMPLAS from Spain, this last as the project coordinator.

About AIMPLAS

AIMPLAS is the Technological Institute of Plastics located in Valencia and is part of the register of Centros Tecnológicos of the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad. It belongs to FEDIT (Federación Española de Centros Tecnológicos) and REDIT (Red de Institutos Tecnológicos de la Comunitat Valenciana).

AIMPLAS is a non-profit research association which has the objective of acting as a technological partner with companies in all sectors related to plastics, customizing integral and personalized solutions through the coordination of R+D+ i projects and technological services (analysis, testing, technical assistance, competitive and strategic intelligence and training).

AIMPLAS belongs to IMAUT (Innovación en Movilidad, Automoción y Transporte) and to FEDIT (Federación Española de Institutos Tecnológicos). In addition, it is an active member of other Technological Networks such as AESICOM (Clúster de la Indústria de Composites) and FEDIT. It also belongs to ASOBIOCOM (Asociación Española de Plásticos Biodegradables Compostables) and to European Composites, Plastics and Polymer Processing Platform ECP4.